“The residents of various Ukrainian regions hold many values in common, something we can and are willing to discuss. In fact, we can be friends, not just students discussing scholarly topics. The Donetsk discussion is very important for us. We are like-minded people, although naturally our views of the situation in our country differ. However, I am certain that in many aspects we will achieve agreement,” said Olha Reshetylova of Ostroh Academy National University, whose comment is probably the most accurate description of the atmosphere that dominated the club meeting held on Nov. 26.
That day, Donetsk National University was the gathering place of the Ostroh Club whose members attend national universities in various regions of Ukraine. Similar meetings have already taken place in Ostroh, Odesa, and Kharkiv. The sponsors of the meeting were the national civic organization Association for European Studies and the organization European Donbas.
The participants had warm words for The Day’s editor in chief Larysa Ivshyna, who initiated the Ostroh Club and is still one of its most active members.
The very title of the roundtable discussion, “Ukrainians: Between Local Identity and European Citizenship,” envisaged a huge spectrum of questions that were placed on the agenda, ranging from local to national and even European identity.
Reshetylova said that the debate in the Donbas region proved as complicated as those that were held earlier in Odesa and Kharkiv. But there was a special aspect to the one in Donbas. Unfortunately, the region’s young elite lacks experience in broaching these kinds of subjects, so during the roundtable the Donbas students were obviously absorbing this knowledge from their colleagues from other regions. At the same time, the students from Donetsk wanted to present the greatest number of their own views on the subject.
Perhaps the biggest discovery for the Donetsk students was the departure from their customary regional-identity approach in favor of examining the nationwide dimension of this problem, which boils down to more than identifying oneself as a member of a particular territorial community; it also means inculcating in every Ukrainian the awareness of being part of the Ukrainian nation. This problem is topical in the Donbas as well as in Kharkiv and Odesa, whose representatives also insisted on the prevalence in their regions of some local, even “small-town,” identity.
Olha Burlaka, a postgraduate student at Mechnikov National University of Odesa, said that the issue of Ukrainian national identify often fades into the background in Odesa because so many ethnic groups live in this region, and they are inclined to identify themselves with their own ethnic background first and the Ukrainian nation second.
A similar situation exists in Kharkiv. According to Denys Podiachev, a postgraduate student at Karazin National University, the urban elite is still divided. Part of it is still oriented toward Russia or even the Soviet Union, while another part (mostly representatives of the elite humanities enclave) is beginning to incline toward the Ukrainian national project. So far, however, there is no unity and it is too early to discuss the possibility of a fixed national identity in Kharkiv.
In the Donbas region, there is an altogether different angle to this problem. Here, like before, the majority consisting of both representatives of the local elite and ordinary residents tends to identify themselves as “Donbas people,” residents of the coal-mining area of Ukraine, and they are somewhat aloof from any generally national projects and ideas.
Serhii Stukanov, a postgraduate student in the Department of Philosophy at Donetsk National University and the representative of this coal-mining region in the Ostroh Club, says that the notion of national identity is mostly regarded in the political rather than ethnic context in the Donbas. Ethnically, most residents of the Donbas associate themselves with Russia and regard themselves as Ukrainians by civic-political affiliation. Therefore, as Donetsk National University’s Viktoria Kalashnykova pointed out, national identity in the Donbas is “acquired,” meaning that residents do not simply feel that they are Ukrainians, as this may be observed in other regions. They are aware of this on a purely rational level, and this does not allow them to fully accept all Ukrainian values - above all, the language.
“For me, national identity is in many respects an awareness of myself as a Ukrainian-speaking individual. If you are aware of yourself as a Ukrainian, if you realize that you want to keep living in this country, that this is your country, you cannot regard the Ukrainian language as anything but an inseparable component of your national identity,” Kalashnykova said. She added that this awareness has cost her “immense willpower and effort” without which it is simply impossible to switch easily and painlessly to the Ukrainian language in the Donbas. But she believes that it was worth the effort: “I did this consciously and that’s why I consider myself a Ukrainian.”
According to the Donetsk students, the Donbas is an area that has just set forth on the road that may lead to its self-awareness as a Ukrainian region. For this to happen, Donetsk oblast will have to do a great deal of work - but not so much in order to align itself with other regions and get closer to the common national idea as to find in itself the inner nucleus that will allow this region to identify itself on the national level.
According to Stukanov, the first step has already been taken. Roundtables that raise such painful topics are a very important stage on the road to national identity. “Such discussions are necessary above all to identify yourself better. At the same time, discussions of these problems by young people, the future elite of our society, will help expand Ukrainian national identity.”
Similar views were expressed by students from other oblasts, who said that in the course of this discussion they became aware - like never before - that there are truly many common values in all the regions of Ukraine; all that is necessary is to become aware of them and understand them. Reshetilova believes that this awareness comes from such debates. It is not enough just to sit and listen to a lecture and study theory; each person should also make a personal effort to ensure that the unity of western, eastern, northern, and southern Ukraine takes place not just in theory but in practice.
In general, we should visit each other. One of the main tasks of the young intellectuals who belong to the Ostroh Club is to foster internal Ukrainian integration.
